So first the good stuff. I’m down 2lbs, maybe 3 this week. The yoga pants I bought at Old Navy in October – my first regular sized pants in years – are no longer suitable for working out in. They fall off.

There’s something extra impressive about stretchy pants getting functionally too big. Because, you know, they’re stretchy, they fit forever. They have a little give when you’re a bit too big and a bit of cling when you get smaller. When they get so big they start to fall off when you jump, you know something good is happening.

The same is also true of undies…but we won’t go there.

I started yet another new workout program this week. Yeah, yeah, didn’t I just start a new one 3 weeks ago? One I loved? Yes, I loved it so much I found a newer, improved version of it and switched to that. Previously I had been using the plan from New Rules of Lifting for Women – still an excellent resource by the way. As I started looking into other work by the authors of 'New Rules' I found The Female Body Breakthrough which is written by the wife of the guy that put together the workout programs in ‘New Rules.’ ‘The Female Body Breakthrough’ is more recent. It follows a lot of the same fitness philosophy that ‘New Rules’ does plus a few important tweaks.

And the weight training workouts are totally kicking my butt. These workouts are designed to build fitness while also addressing typical muscle imbalances unique to women. The exercises might seem pretty standard fare until you follow them exactly as she describes. I was doing standard squats with 60lb weights. Now I’m doing them with 3lbs. The difference? I’m holding them straight up overhead and squat right until the backs of my legs hit my calves. Can't let those rinky dink dumbbells drift either.

Romanian dead lifts are all well and good but how about doing them on one leg at a time? Holding only one dumbbell to really challenge your balance?

And Bulgarian split squats are the new exercise I both love and hate. I could only do 8, bodyweight only, on each side. (3 sets)

There’s also a heavy emphasis on exercises that challenge my core muscles – a major weak spot for me. I’m looking forward to seeing the results from the new workouts.

As for eating, well, this wasn’t one of my best weeks. First off, I tried just a plain Clean Eating, no counting calories method of eating for a couple of days. 6 meals, a whole grain or fruit carb, a veggie, a palm sized lean protein and healthy fat at each meal. Don’t eat anything processed. I didn’t stick to it.

I learned that I need to count calories and write down everything I eat. To me, not knowing the calorie ‘cost’ of a given meal is like shopping in a store with no price tags. More often than not you’re in for a shock when you get to the checkout. Lesson learned. Learn, adjust and move on with the new strategy.

So the plan for next week is to continue with my current workouts, 3 days weights and 3 days HIIT cardio. I plan on tightening up my eating. I need to find creative ways to include more fruits and veggies in my daily diet. I’m still adjusting to eating healthy with braces. To be all PC about it, I don’t ‘prefer’ cooked veggies unless they’re in soup and having braces kind of nixes eating most of them raw. I’ll figure something out.

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I am myself. I'm introspective, intuitive, intense, introverted and idealistic. Don't those sound like such nice big 'i' words? Whatever. I'm mostly a weenie. I'm ridiculously happy being married to my best friend and true soul-mate. I have two wonderful, beautiful, brilliant and unique little girls. I parent full-time. I homeschool. I game. I think about sewing..